Zapp! English Colloquial 2.3 - Describing People & Character
Taught by Tom Wilkinson — Cambridge CELTA
Recorded and taught by a team of British and North American English teachers, based in Oxford (UK) and Barcelona (Spain).
Katie asks Clare whether she is as stubborn as a mule. Clare admits she can be, "when I think I'm right, which…honestly is most of the time". A minute earlier Katie had asked what a mule actually is, and Clare answered, cheerfully, "To be honest I have no idea!" — leaving Katie to describe it as a "horsey donkey thing" that carries things up mountains. This is Colloquial 2.3, and it is twenty-two minutes of guessing games about people, character and the words we use behind their backs.
What you'll hear in this episode
We recorded two conversations. In the first, Katie describes five expressions and Clare guesses them: as stubborn as a mule, as hard as nails, bonkers, a pain in the neck and a heart of gold. Clare nearly says the rude version of the pain expression, stops herself mid-word, and Katie catches her: "You were going to say the…the less polite version then weren't you?" On bonkers, Clare says she uses it constantly "because I spend a lot of time with people that are bonkers". Katie manages her own slip too, producing "as stubble as" before getting the sentence out properly. When Katie says Clare has a heart of gold for getting up early, Clare replies: "Nobody says this about me normally."
In the second conversation, Tom takes over the guessing: a dark horse, a pen pusher, a fat cat, an eager beaver and a jack-of-all-trades. His reaction to pen pusher is blunt — "What a horrible word" — and one of the speakers then confesses to a few months of exactly that work in a government office, handing out unemployment money at eighteen or nineteen. Tom adds the full proverb, "jack-of-all-trades, master of none", and explains why it is still a compliment. Katie asks whether she is a dark horse; Tom answers, "Well you may be, but I don't know yet." She also concedes: "I'm getting too old to be an eager beaver."
Quick facts
| Episode | Zapp! English Colloquial 2.3 - Describing People & Character |
| Pack | Colloquial 2 |
| Level | 2 |
| Duration | 22 minutes 30 seconds |
| Speakers | Katie with Clare, then Katie with Tom |
| Workbook | Included in the €39 all-in-one pack |
What you'll learn
The most useful thing here is not the eleven expressions themselves but how English builds them. Katie flags the pattern out loud: two similes first, as stubborn as a mule and as hard as nails, both following the shape as + adjective + as + noun. Then, in the second half, four two-word noun phrases in a row — dark horse, pen pusher, fat cat, eager beaver — which is exactly what lets Tom guess fat cat once he asks, "has this got an animal word in it?"
You'll also hear how register works in practice. Clare's self-interruption is a live demonstration that one version of an expression is fine at work and the other really is not. Katie shows that a pain in the neck stretches from people to late trains, then adds that it's "more common for a person" — the kind of usage note dictionaries rarely give you. And you'll pick up the connotation work: fat cat carries an accusation of getting rich unfairly, while eager beaver, as Tom notes, is "polite and positive".
Because both conversations are unscripted, you get real listening practice too: overlapping speech, hesitation, laughter, and speakers repairing their own sentences in real time.
Vocabulary from this episode
- as stubborn as a mule – to be very stubborn, this kind of person will not change their ideas or opinions about something; Katie explains that a mule will simply refuse to move.
- a pain in the neck – to be very annoying; used for people and, as Katie shows, for unreliable trains.
- a pain in the arse – to be very annoying (not polite!); the version Clare stops herself from saying.
- to have a heart of gold – to be a very kind and caring person.
- bonkers – crazy; Clare calls it very common British English.
- as hard as nails – not emotional or caring; can also mean physically strong.
- a jack of all trades – a person who can do a lot of different kinds of work.
- a fat cat – a rich person with a lot of power that we feel maybe got their money unfairly or doesn't care about other people.
- an eager beaver – a person who tries hard and works hard and wants to do something well.
- a dark horse – someone who has a secret, often a secret ability or skill that when we find out we are surprised about.
- a pen pusher – a person who does an unimportant or boring office job.
What's in the workbook
The workbook for 2.3 gives you the full transcript of both conversations, so you can go back and see where Clare hesitates and where Katie tangles her own words. After each conversation there is a Meaning and Pronunciation task: a question, then a beep, then the expression and a model sentence to repeat — "She's a pain in the neck", "You won't change his mind, he's as stubborn as a mule", "All the fat cats go there."
The extra materials include the glossary above with a politeness rating from 1 to 3, where 3 comes with the warning: "Don't use this with your mother-in-law!!!" Then two exercises: Practice Exercise 1 asks you to put the missing word back into five sentences ("He's a fat. He made lots of money when he sold his business."), and Practice Exercise 2 is a speed-matching task pairing eight sentence beginnings with their endings. Answers to both are provided at the back.
This workbook is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack, which covers every episode across all our series for €39.
Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39
Common questions
Is the audio scripted?
The conversations with Clare and Tom are unscripted — they genuinely don't know which expression is coming. The teaching sections that set up the tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.
What level is this episode?
Level 2 of our Colloquial series. You'll need reasonable listening comprehension, because nobody slows down for you.
Why does Clare stop herself saying one of the expressions?
Because the rude version, a pain in the arse, is rated 3 in the workbook glossary — very informal, and capable of offending. A pain in the neck does the same job safely.
Do I need the workbook to follow the audio?
No, the audio stands alone. The workbook adds the transcript, the rated glossary and the two practice exercises with answers.
How do I get the workbook?
It comes with the all-in-one pack at €39, together with the workbooks for every other episode.
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